1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and, more particularly, relates to improvements of an image processing apparatus capable of changing over the operation mode between a magnification observation mode for observing an object by magnifying it and a high-speed photographing mode for photographing movement of an object at a high speed.
2. Description of the Related Art
As apparatuses for observing to-be-inspected objects by magnifying them, there have been conventionally known magnification observation apparatuses (for example, JP-A No. 2006-030969). A magnification observation apparatus irradiates a to-be-inspected object as an object with light and receives reflected light or transmitted light from the object through an optical lens to create a magnified image of the object. Such a magnification observation apparatus is generally constituted by a head part including an image pickup element constituted by plural light receiving elements for receiving light from the object, and a main body part which performs processing on image signals from the head part and displays images in its screen.
FIG. 24 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional magnification observation apparatus. The magnification observation apparatus 201 includes a head part 202 which is constituted by an image pickup part 211 and an illumination part 212 and, further, includes a main body part 203 constituted by a light-source device 213, an exposure control part 214, an image processing part 215, an output control part 216, a display 217 and a nonvolatile memory 218. The illumination part 212 is an illumination device for illuminating an object and irradiates the object with light transferred through a light transmission cable from the light-source device 213 in the main body part 203. The exposure control part 214 performs an operation for specifying light exposure timings and the like to the image pickup part 211. The image processing part 215 performs processing such as gamma correction on image data from the image pickup part 211. The output control part 216 performs operations for displaying the image data from the image processing part 215 on the display 217 and, also, if necessary, writing the image data in the nonvolatile memory 218. The magnification observation apparatus performs analysis processing such as measurements of dimensions of objects and synthesis of depths by using image data accumulated in the nonvolatile memory 218.
As a camera (the image pickup part) used in such a magnification observation apparatus, in general, an image pickup element which operates at frame rates lower than a video rate is used. For example, an image pickup element which operates at frame rates in the range of 15 fps to 60 fps is employed. On the contrary, with an apparatus for photographing movement of an object at a high speed, an image pickup element capable of operating at a higher speed than the video rate is employed. For example, an image pickup element which operates at frame rates higher than 250 fps is employed.
FIG. 25 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional high-speed photographing apparatus. The high-speed photographing apparatus 401 is constituted by an image pickup part 402 which receives light from an object and creates image signals, and a main body part 403 which processes image signals from the image pickup part 402. The main body part 403 is constituted by an exposure control part 411, a frame-rate conversion part 412, an image processing part 413, an output control part 414, a display 415, a recording control part 416, a volatile memory 417 and a moving-image readout part 418. The frame-rate conversion part 412 performs processing for decreasing the frame rate of image data transferred from the image pickup part 402, in order to monitor images created by photographing. The image processing part 413 performs processing on the image data which has been subjected to the frame-rate conversion and displays it on the display 415. The recording control part 416 performs an operation of writing, in the volatile memory 417, image data transferred from the image pickup part 402. The volatile memory 417 is a storage device capable of operating at a higher speed than that of the nonvolatile memory 218. The moving-image readout part 418 performs operations of reading image data from the volatile memory 417 and transferring it to the image processing part 413 at a frame rate lower than that upon writing by the recording control part 416, in order to slow replay of moving images.
If a single apparatus can be utilized for both the aforementioned magnification observations and high-speed photographing, it is possible to increase its convenience. It is considered to constitute an image pickup device including a main body part which is provided with an image processing part for processing image signals from an image pickup part during magnification observations, and an image processing part for processing image signals from the image pickup part during high-speed photographing. However, this requires provision of both the image processing part for magnification observations and the image processing part for high-speed photographing, and there is a problem of increase of the fabrication cost.